Organisation/Company Fundació per a la Universitat Oberta de Catalunya Research Field Engineering » Communication engineering Researcher Profile First Stage Researcher (R1) Positions PhD Positions Application Deadline 18 May 2026 - 23:59 (Europe/Madrid) Country Spain Type of Contract Temporary Job Status Full-time Hours Per Week 38,5 Offer Starting Date 1 Jul 2026 Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme? Other EU programme Reference Number 101227315 Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure? No
Offer Description
We are seeking to recruit a Doctoral Candidate in the framework of the Marie Skłodowska‑Curie Doctoral Network NEWTON funded by the European Commission. The recruited candidate will join the Wireless Networks Research Lab (WiNe) and become a member of the Doctoral Network in an international environment, working closely with senior experts who will supervise the PhD and collaborate with the rest of the Doctoral Network fellows.
The UOC is a fully accredited University, partly funded by the Regional Government of Catalonia, operating from Barcelona and serving over 40,000 students worldwide. It was established in 1994 and has received international awards in recognition of its educational model and the quality of its academic activity. The Doctoral Candidate will work in the UOC’s Research Hub, located in the 22@ District of Barcelona, the technological district, home of many major company headquarters and universities.
NEWTON, is a newly launched Marie Skłodowska‑Curie Innovative Doctoral Network (DN) aiming at proposing a revolutionary approach of a converged wireless‑optical network architecture that makes reality an efficient 6G Cell‑Free (CF)-based access network for high-density and high coverage deployments. NEWTON proposes a new 6G networking approach spanning the radio-edge, regional-edge, and network‑management domains and aligned with major 5G/6G technology roadmaps worldwide. It introduces cell‑free (CF) solutions based on O‑RAN and AI to improve radio capacity while reducing energy consumption by up to 30% and cutting costs by a factor of 4 via distributed cascaded optical‑hybrid processing, alongside neuromorphic schemes targeting an order‑of‑magnitude power reduction in multi‑antenna installations, a 10 dB BER improvement, and a 3 dB increase in processing‑unit noise tolerance; at the regional-edge it advances fronthaul support for CF radio units using multi‑band XL‑MIMO beamforming to double spectral efficiency versus mMIMO; at the network‑management level it delivers AI/ML-driven, multi‑objective, user‑centric orchestration for CF‑mMIMO to improve overall energy efficiency by 20% and joint management of radio, optical, and compute resources to increase utilization by up to 20% through smart slicing.
In this context, NEWTON will build a training network to conduct top‑notch research towards the development and experimental evaluation of a gamut of techniques, methodological frameworks, and tools.
The Doctoral Network also includes the following partners: IQUADRAT (coordinator), the KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT LEUVEN (KUL), ISRD SP Z O.O. (ISRD), EUR‑EURECOM GIE, UNIVERSITY OF WEST ATTICA (UWA), NVIDIA DENMARK APS (NVIDIA), and RANPLAN WIRELESS NETWORK DESIGN LTD (RAN).
This research position targets the development of scalable, self‑organising solutions for the efficient management of computing infrastructure based on the Cloud‑Edge Continuum (CEC) concept. The primary aim is to significantly improve network resilience and efficiency, specifically targeting a reduction in the time to correct network configurations when SLA (Service Level Agreement) is violated and reducing the overall network SLA violation frequency.
The position focuses on a combination of swarm computing and decentralized intelligence where a swarm of nodes learns graph dependencies by effectively integrating the structure of distributed systems into neural network architecture. This approach extends Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) to model distributed systems while accounting for the high heterogeneity of devices in terms of storage, processing capacities, and specific hardware characteristics. The core of the methodology involves building an analytics framework for the modelling and prediction of application metrics in the CEC, enabling autonomous self‑configuration of swarm computing within the 6G infrastructure with continuous, data‑driven optimisation.
Responsibilities
Within the framework of NEWTON, the recruited researcher will work on their individual project entitled “Inter‑computing self‑organisation of computing infrastructure in 6G networks”, focused on the spatio‑temporal modelling and prediction of the application metrics in the Cloud Edge Continuum for large‑scale networks. The candidate is expected to do a secondment at NVIDIA (Denmark).
The Doctoral Candidates (DC) enrolments are under very attractive employment conditions and competitive salaries offered in Marie Skłodowska‑Curie Doctoral Networks. They will join a top‑class research group, pursue a career in wireless communications and networking, and have the opportunity to lead to a successful completion of a doctoral degree through a joint multidisciplinary research training programme. The period of employment is 3 years, with a secondment to NVIDIA up to 6 months. The candidate will be enrolled in a PhD degree programme.
About the UOC
A leader in e‑learning, our pioneering university is a digital native with global reach and a mandate for public service. We have been providing accredited, high‑quality online education for the last 30 years, and our mission is lifelong development of people's talent. We conduct research with a transformative approach to generate social and economic impact.
At the UOC, we value diversity – differences in experience and ideas make us stronger. We ensure equal opportunities and are committed to assessing reasonable adjustments for candidates. Our recruitment and selection processes are based on the principles of Open, Transparent and Merit‑based Recruitment (OTM‑R).
Qualifications
* Must hold a Master in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science/Engineering, Math/Physics/Statistics or a related field.
* Have not yet been awarded a PhD degree.
* Be in the first four years (full‑time equivalent research experience) of your research career.
* Must not have resided or carried out main activity in Spain for more than 12 months in the 36 months immediately before appointment.
* Strong mathematical background.
* Experience/knowledge on communications, 5G/6G, and/or Artificial Intelligence considered an asset.
* Track record of research excellence.
* Good communication skills.
Languages: English, Level: Excellent
Years of Research Experience: None
Benefits and Conditions
* Competitive salary regulated by EU contributions (living allowance up to €3,833.56, mobility allowance €710, possible family allowance €495/€660).
* Secondment to NVIDIA for up to 6 months.
* Open working model combining teleworking with on‑site work at UOC Campus.
* Computer equipment and ergonomic materials for home and on‑site work.
* Training possibilities for professional development.
* Early Friday finish, 24 vacation days, 9 personal leave days, 4 UOC holidays.
* Reduced summer hours (35 hours/week) if organisational requirements allow.
* Well‑being benefits (health activities, medical and physiotherapy services, workplace adaptability assessment).
Selection Process
To take part in the selection process, the following information is required in the application:
* CV.
* Master and Bachelor diplomas and transcripts.
Please submit the required information through https://cv.newton-6g.eu/ and select the “DC13 Inter‑computing self‑organisation of computing infrastructure in 6G networks” position. Only applications received through this site will be considered.
This contract is funded by the European Union under the project GA Number 101227315.
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